


Ennui

by Nightalp



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Melancholy, but happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-02
Updated: 2014-03-02
Packaged: 2018-01-14 08:37:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1259926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightalp/pseuds/Nightalp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark accepted the golden apple Loki gifted him with - he accepted it some hundred years ago. <br/>And he is happy. He really is. He loves his husband, he loves their child, he loves the materials and techniques he has access to as a prince of Asgard.<br/>But ... he's human. And maybe ... maybe he's not made for eternity ...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ennui

**Author's Note:**

> Who wants to life forever? 
> 
> I just wanted to explore how Tony and Loki would be some hundred years after they met and fell in love.

The day was colder than usual, bright as the gold of the palace and the sun glazing on it, sharp with the promise of the coming fall; a fresh breeze shaking the banners and flags hoisted on the pillars and towers. The sky overhead was nearly clear, just a few stray white clouds decorated the blue and concealed the brighter stars.

Standing on the wall lining the courtyard Tony could see over the whole city of Asgard - and he still hadn't overcome his irritation about a people who called both their capital and their country the same as their realm, though over the centuries it had faded to a faint smirk whenever he thought of it now. He could see the people milling in the streets, small ants from high up here that worked their daily life. There was no running - why should they run? They had all the time of the world - and while there was shouting he didn't hear any of it. Of course he knew that there had to be children - even aesir had these, as few as births seemed to be - but he couldn't make out their smaller shapes amid the greater ones of the market people and warriors and horses.

His eyes wandered further, bored of the display they had seen thousand, million times before, before they found the tree line separating the city from the outer wilds. It was summer - it wasn't always summer in Asgard, but the winter season was far shorter than anywhere else, and while it was harsher and colder than in most realms it almost seemed ashamed for burying the forests and fields and cities in snow and frost. But now it was summer, and the trees were green and lush, the shadows beneath them warm and cozy, and he felt a deep deep seated longing for harsher forests, for cold soil and beasts and vermin. Of course, there were forests like that on Asgard, but he hadn't been there for a while - it tended to make Loki uneasy when he was out there alone, knowing that the fauna was wild and dangerous.

A smile creeped on Tony's lips, bitter and loving all the same - the man was a bastard, taming Tony, but he was Tony's bastard.

Still ... he could take the suit for a flight ...

Having access to materials unknown to humankind, being able to manipulate uru and crystal and oh so many others into any shape he wanted, using technologies he never even thought about, he had been able to build a suit that made him as safe as he possible could be.

Again a smile graced his lips when he thought of Loki's reaction to the build-in magic-repeller that both kept him safe from magical attacks and shrouded from Loki's sight. His husband had made sure that he would be able to find him even through the magic dampeners, and for a while that competition - building something to shroud him again just to have Loki find a way to circumvent it - had been more fun than Tony ever could think of.

For a while ... sighing he felt the smile slip from his lips. He was a human, and even though he had always thought that he wanted the world, and an eternity to explore it - even though he had thought that as long as there was anything left to explore he would never lack for the will to live ...

A loud cry roared up from under him and the remembrance of why he stood here - at barely dawn when he had feasted until late in the night, not to mention that he hadn't gotten to sleep immediately after returning to their rooms (there had to be a reason Loki was the god of chaos and not of sex, and one day Tony even mi ght find it) - brought him out of his thoughts and a wide, wicked smile to his lips. Because under him, in the bailey, the warriors meat to their daily morning sparring session - their morning prayer as he had dubbed it when he had seen it first, and he still thought it to be the most accu rate description - aesir had no god, but that didn't mean they didn't worship, even if it was their body's strength and their fighting prowess.

And there, amid all those broad and muscled battle hardened warriors, struck out a slender sinewy figure - Loki. As always Tony's breath caught in his lungs when he saw the bright morning sun bath his god's pale skin in gold and red, his long hair flying after him like a black raven, his movement fast and elegant as a dancer's and his hands and feet as deadly as a poised snake.

He was fighting against three of the guards today - two young men used to victory and a much to carefree woman, obviously greatly underestimating their opponent for his frame and heritage and reputation to be but a shadow of his brother. They would learn, as they had all learned, that he was a shadow out of his free will -  _now_ \- and that he was far more dangerous than Thor, for where the king would show mercy Loki never seemed to knew the word, nor was he inclined to keep to the rules of honor. There was a reason Thor had left the training of his troops to Lady Sif and Loki both, for where the one taught them loyalty and technic, the other taught them to survive.

"Beauty incarnate", a voice said from behind Tony. A few years ago he may have startled, but he had become used to the presence in his back, watching Loki like he did.

"Like a sharp and brilliantly crafted knife", he responded as if they didn't both knew that, the words or similar ones exchanged for years now, seemingly another part of life now like the sun going up and the rain coming down.

"He reminds me of Steve", Tony said, nodding to one of the attackers that was now thrown backwards into a wall. "On the day we met. Loki threw him over in a similar way. Though" he grinned even though his companion couldn't see it. "Steve had someone coming for him who actually knew how to fight."

Speaking of the man he had hated as a youth and loved as a friend as grown-up filled him with longing for a time that was hundred of years over now. But he still remembered Steve's honest smile and quiet earnestness, Natasha's black humor, Clint's tricks, Bruce’ silent reassurance whenever he needed a best friend, and he remembered their camaraderie that never really ceased, even with Tony and Thor in Asgard, with Bruce and Steve living longer due to their changed bodies, with Natasha and Clint growing old, raising kids, dying. It had never been lost to him, and sometimes it was a comfort knowing that they were waiting for him, somewhere on the other side of the veil called death.

He remembered too Bruce’ words when he accepted the eternity Loki offered:  _You have to be sure, my friend. When you do this, Loki has to be more than just your spouse. He has to be your life._

As if he hadn't been that before, even more than Pepper ever managed. Love curled his lips into a soft smile when he looked down at his lover, even more so when he saw the wicked little creature they called kid - he really came after his bearer - run up to the victor, loudly applauding him and showing off to his friends who gathered along the wall.

"Björn will be a great warrior when he has grown." The woman came forward to stand beside him, resting her arms on the balustrade.

"Maybe", Tony answered. "Or a great inventor. Or a politician. God knows, he has the brain and the body for everything."

Sigyn laughed, freely but quietly. "I still do not know which god it is you are swearing by", she commented, and Tony threw her an amused smile. "Mine", he responded.

Another cry had them turning their heads again, leaning down to look for the source.

It seemed they had been spotted - not that Tony was surprised. He had been there, on this wall, every morning for the last four hundred some years, and for this man now looking up at him, smiling, waving, brilliant and strong and happy, he would be there for another four hundred years.

And the warm, smiling presence beside him reminded him that on the day he left the realms of the living and continued his interrupted route through the veil, he would not leave Loki without love.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it. Please tell me what you think


End file.
